Glenn Danzig: Elvis Covers Album Will Be Out in 2019

Glenn Danzig was the latest guest on Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio program. In addition to the 30th anniversary celebration of the Danzig band and the Misfits reunions shows, the singer discussed the upcoming movie based on his Verotik comic book characters. He's notorious for juggling multiple projects and also has plans to release his long-awaited Elvis covers album next year and he's released the second volume of Hidden Lyrics of the Left Hand, a book which featured visual representation's of Danzig's lyrics. Check out the chat below.

Danzig did a run of shows that coincided with Halloween. Glenn, what about Halloween and the season resonates so much with you?

It has just always been that way so I think the material lends itself to that. So we always get a lot of offers around that time period and this show being the 30 anniversary we did a bunch of shows in Europe this summer, and just decided to do a little, you know, West Coast, kind of Midwest celebrations.

Glenn there's a deal in place for you to write, direct and score a movie based on your periodic comic book characters.

Yeah, that's why I'm taking a break after this. We started production already on the movie, already filmed a couple of scenes, and as soon as the shows are done I go right into shooting. So once that's done, there's all the stuff we have to do, the editing and you know, getting it ready, doing press I'm sure, and then I go right into another movie after that.

As it relates to the Verotik comic book characters, I mean - what are you looking forward to the most about bringing your characters to life on a movie screen?

Well, just that I get to bring them to life, making sure that they are true to the comics. They are going to be bloody, so you are not going to see some like sell out horror movie, you are going to see blood and violence.

Lots of gore.

Yeah, of course. That's the stuff I like. I think that's what everybody wants to see if they go see a horror movie. I don't think they want to see a lot of people just talking for an hour and a half.

Suspense stuff.

Well, they want to see that, but they want to see everything. They want blood, they want want something other than people just talking to each other, and people doing stupid stuff, like the girl runs and falls, of course, and the guy drops his gun and doesn't go back for it, and so he has no weapon — stupid stuff like that that insults everybody's intelligence. There is none of that in ours. You won't see people doing stupid stuff. Like the old clichés, like you figured that they would have stopped doing that decades ago, but they keep still doing it.

Let's talk about those Misfits shows. Two Misfits shows led to several more with another one scheduled for next year. What's been the best part for you personally about doing Misfits shows?

So many people never got to see it and it's a chance for them to see it done the right way. And because I don't like to tour it's great because we just do the shows — whenever we feel like it. We are not milking it or anything like that. We feel like doing a show, we get an offer, and then we do it. So it's very laid back which is how I like it and we just go onstage and tear it up afterward. [laughs]

There seems to be a period of time where you were like, maybe it was never going to happen and now - you did them - how did you feel about them after they happened?

It's good to go back and do it just because so many people would love to see it and, like I said, doing it the right way. We are able to do it any way we were never able to do it before. So that helps.

Glenn you've always been forward-thinking about your career. Why is it important to acknowledge the past by commemorating the anniversary of the formation of Danzig and reconnecting with The Misfits?

You have to know where you have been to know where you are going and it's an old cliché but it's true and it's true with everything. It's not just music or your career. For me, for 30 years of Danzig is wild. In other words it's been going successfully for 30 years. That's something when I started doing it with Rick [Rubin], it's kind of how we envisioned it. It's great that it's still going, [laughs].

Thinking back to 30 years ago and getting everything together, did you ever think that at this point you'd be doing movies? Or celebrating these reunions and still doing it this many years later?

I didn't know how I would be doing it, I knew I'd be doing something. I just didn't know how, or if I was still alive. It worked out good. It worked out okay.

Every time we get together and we talk about what's going on with you - the past and whatever, you're like, "I'm still angry." [laughs] You've said that before just about the lyrics and everything that your music has been about. How do you feel today? Are you still -

Yes, of course, it's what keeps you going. It's when you see people doing stupid stuff, you know people saying, "Oh this will never happen again" and of course it happens because people are so stupid and duped by the mainstream media that, you know they are idiots. It's how countries are toppled. It's how people give up their freedoms and rights and they said they would never do it again, oh this would never happen again, but of course, it always happens again.

So anger drives you.

Yes, anger, people consistently being stupid as "bleep." It doesn't, you know, shock me.

Do you feel like there's also a part of you that - for people that say no that's never going to happen, you're never going to be able do whatever - that that makes you want to do something even more?

That has been my whole career. You have to understand when Danzig first came out it was just like, there was nothing really like Danzig. We were the antithesis of what was being played on the radio and on MTV. I mean it was you know what it was, it was…

There was definitely nothing like it. I'm sure there was a lot of naysayers, and I have to imagine it was hard starting out and you had a lot of people that were like, no one is going to sign this.

I just remember the idiots at Geffen Records where Rick was at the time. They didn't want to go to our show early, they said oh we will get there later, and of course the show was oversold, they couldn't get in, they were standing outside screaming and yelling, "Don't you know who I am at Geffen Records?" The people were like, "I don't care. There are too many people inside." They oversold the show, and you know they all of a sudden were like well maybe we should pay attention to this band.

It's like people don't trust their own instincts.

It wasn't their instincts, it was Rick's instincts. And he knew and they didn't. That's why he did not stay there. They were morons.

Creatively, Glenn, you work when you're inspired, not any commercial schedule. Typically, what does your daily routine become when inspiration hits?

It depends on the inspiration for what. Is it for my comics, is it for a movie scripts, is it for Danzig, you know for one million other things that I do so once I get inspired I just start doing it and making it happen.

Do you have to go into one mode at a time? Or are there times -

No. I am working on multiple things at any given time.

So you don't have to get into music mode, or comics mode, or movie mode?

No, no.

Do you ever sleep?

Not a lot. [laughs]

I don’t know where you find the time because you're always doing -

Since I was a kid I have been sleeping, maybe I get four or five hours of sleep, maybe, if I am lucky.

Maybe that's why you're angry [laughs]

No, that's not why.

Hidden Lyrics of the Left Hand Vol. II was recently published. What direction, if any, did you give him about illustrating a visual interpretation of your lyrics?

Well, you know, he and I did Volume I, and so, you know the fans wanted another volume — it was a big success. So, Simon and I did another volume. Sometimes I would just let him go off on his own, and other times he would ask me, for maybe a rough, to do a little drawing, rough one, or maybe to give him a direction to go in, or whatever, but pretty much I trust Simon to do a great job and so far it has been ... we released it about a month or two ago and it has just been a giant success again. So we cannot even keep them in stock, so it's fantastic.

I remember there was a line around the entire festival for when people were waiting to meet up with you guys for a signing.

Simon is a character.

He sure is.

Did you get to meet him?

Yes.

Yeah, so you know.

Oh, I know. [laughs] Tell us, what other stuff? You got the movie going on, what are your other plans going into next year?

So, I will do this movie and right after that, I will start on the other movie. Of course I have to do press for the movie and I'm still looking to put out the Danzig sings Elvis record in 2019, maybe do a few intimate shows here and there for it. But, I don’t know, we'll see.

If the record's now out, I'm not going to do it. It depends on my schedule and if I can get it together and get the cover and everything together - pick the songs. Every time I have downtime, or if I was working on soundtrack stuff I would just record another Elvis track or two so what started out as an EP, I now have more than enough for a full album. I have extra songs that won't even make it on the record. So I'm really going to have to sit down and pick the songs that I really want on the record. But it came out really good, I can't wait for everyone to hear it. A lot of people ask me about it all the time when I'm on the road. So, it will be nice to get it out in some period in 2019 and do some of those intimate shows I was talking about.

Keep us posted on that. So it would be just that?

It would just be the songs from the Danzig Sings Elvis record.

Thanks to Glenn Danzig for the interview. Grab your copy of 'Lyrics of the Left Hand Volume II' at the Verotik-World E-bay store and follow Danzig on Facebook to stay up to date with everything the band is doing.